The Difficulties of Aoko Growing Up
by fineontheoutside
Summary: "Her burden of worries evaporated just as the Phantom Thief did, and she flourished into something like a beautiful garden." While Kaito is deeply in love with Aoko, she claims to have her eyes on someone that goes to the same university as them.


She was truly something beautiful. Especially to him.

She was gorgeous. She was stunning in her own special little way that made men turn their heads to get a second look. Aoko would've been compared to Akako in beauty if they were still in high school. Kaito knew that Aoko suddenly blossomed after she graduated and became a model-worthy lady. In fact, she had been asked by a major makeup company (was it Maybelline or was it that Japanese company, Shiseido? Kaito was never good with remembering such things) to model their new liquid eyeliner liner but she humbly turned them down. When Kaito asked why, she replied she didn't need to taint the makeup brand's name with her bland face. The answer stayed in Kaito's head for months after the incident with an unsatisfactory weight.

She still saw herself as the childish girl with a hot temper from high school. But really, after Kaitou Kid stopped making robberies, she immediately grew taller, got thicker, shinier hair, and became more 'womanly' in her personality and thoughts as well as her developing body. Her burden of worries evaporated just as the Phantom Thief did, and she flourished into something like a beautiful garden. One with vibrant colors and temptingly succulent fruits.

She became Kaito's Garden of Eden. Something he was never allowed to taste. He could look and admire the sacred beauty she had flourished into but never touch, tasting even a single bite of an apple or a single pomegranate seed. It was forbidden and he knew completely well it was.

"Hey Kaito," Aoko said to him in a café near the University of Tokyo, the university they both attended. "Hmm?" he replied trying desperately hard not to sound too eager for having a reason to look up at her. Lately Kaito's been trying to avoid staring at her for too long but sometimes he just couldn't help it.

He drank in her bright smiles and bright eyes. She's wearing a bright yellow dress that makes playful shadows near her thighs. Something she would have never worn back in her high school years. She took a drink of her hot chocolate carefully as to make sure she doesn't smear her perfectly applied pink lipstick.

She laughs light heartedly in embarrassment. "I kinda like someone," she admitted with her cheeks glowing softly. Everything about her was subtle but unmistakably alluring all the same. "Really? Who?" Katio asked, especially cautious to hide his disappointment and jealousy. Her cheeks flushed further into a lovely pink. _More lovelier than normal._

"Let's play twenty questions," she suggested, looking away from him. Kaito held back a groan and obeys. Really, he liked this part of her too. "Does he go to the same university as us?" "Yes." "Do I know him?" "Mhmm."

"How well?" "You think you know him pretty well but you really have a bunch of misconceptions about him. And Kaito, that wasn't a yes or no question."

"To hell with it," he muttered, causing Aoko to raise an eyebrow. He almost never cursed, or at least he kept his language in check when he was around her. She was never one for _vulgar_ language. "If you're going to make a game out it tell me who it is. It's not that cheeky bastard Hakuba, right?" "No Kaito, and don't talk about Saguru-kun that way."

He opened his mouth to speak but Aoko gave him a warning look as she brought the last sip of the hot chocolate to her painted lips. There's a dull pain but he kept his mouth shut.

She looked hesitant for a moment. A thread of words clumped in her throat but she didn't make a sound. Instead, her cell phone began to buzz and steals her attention away. It's a text message from Hakuba and Aoko gave Kaito a slightly apologetic look before turning her complete train of thought to her phone. With quick, nimble fingers she typed a reply that Kaito couldn't quite see before she finished typing. Her thumb, clad with a nail painted a light pink, stilled at the base of the send button for a second before it's pressed and the message was sent.

Aoko pushed her hair out of her face, and her bright, intelligent eyes locked into his confused ones. She gave an embarrassed giggle. "Funny story actually," she said with a distant tone. Kaito cocked an eyebrow. "Do tell." "I forgot that Hakuba and I agreed to meet up before our criminal justice class started to get an early start on our joint analysis. Oh god, I can't believe I forgot."

She stood up and the sleek dress swayed in an innocent manner but Kaito can't stop thinking that it's utterly sexy and beautiful. Aoko pressed two fingers to her right temple, a habit she had taken to, to relax before exerting herself, and took a deep breath. Hurriedly, she grabbed her book bag, one the color of the sky, and threw it over her shoulder, forcing the prominent yellow of her dress to contrast in a lovely fashion. "Pay for me?" she asked sweetly, though she knew the answer. Kaito faked astonishment, though he really can't say no, the way she smiled at him.

"Thanks Kaito, I'll take you out to eat dinner or something after you help me with the psychology project tomorrow," she offered and ran out of their favorite café. Kaito sat at the table for a second longer before draining the last of his coffee and getting up slowly to pay for the two drinks. The cashier gives him the wrong amount of change and his head, too heavy and filled with thoughts of Aoko, he didn't notice.

He walked out of the café. He still had a half hour to waste before his contemporary theatre class would begin. Kaito walked to the park that was out of the way, but he didn't mind, with the spare time to succumb to his thoughts. Aoko declared it to be one of her favorite places in Tokyo when they first attended the university. Really, it was pretty, with warmly colored goldfish swimming in a small pond and an abundance of grass, but the park was average. The only peculiar thing could have been the lack of people for an empty space in the middle of a high demand city, but Kaito could guess why Aoko loved to spend so much time in the park.

It was incomparable with the one they had at home in size, but it was unarguably one. A clock tower. Whoever had designed the clock tower back in Kaito and Aoko's hometown must have also wrote the blue prints for the one that stood in front of him. The design was the same, and at every hour, it loyally played the same toned chimes that Aoko became homesick for.

Kaito's phone buzzed as he stared, deep in thought at the clocktower. He snatched it out of his pocket, almost dropping it with haste. The specific tune that played, Sunburn by Ed Sheeran (because Aoko loved American love songs and who was Kaito to disagree?), was set to be solely Aoko's ringtone. It was a text. Aoko never texted in class. She cared for her grades too much. But once he opened it. There it was. Three words written beautifully.

_No, it wasn't 'I love you"._

"It's you Bakaito!"

_AN: No chapter two because again, I have started another story that I don't know how to end. Something I intended to be light hearted and (dare I say it?) happy, because Kaito and Aoko really, really deserve it after everything I put them through._

_Review?_


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